Morse Code
by LivingOnCaffiene
Summary: People are being held captive by someone holding a grudge against a certain ED doctor. He is sending them clues, as to what his next plans are. Will they work out the puzzle before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

(New story I came up with after trailing the internet for new ideas. Let me know if you like it. I will only carry it on if you guys want me to.)

"No. Please." The young woman begged. She had been tied and gagged so her words were muffled. She wriggled about as her position was uncomfortable. Her arms had been ties behind her back, and she was laying on her stomach. Her legs had been elevated so she could not move. "Please just let me go."

"What's that?" The man said, not understanding her through the material over her mouth. He came into view and to her horror, she saw a kitchen knife in his hand, which glinted in the small ray of sunlight coming through a hole in a blocked out window.

"No." The woman said, crying as she knew it was no use. He was going to use that on her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "LET ME GO." She continued to scream into the material. "PLEASE."

"SHUT UP!" He growled and kicked her in the side, making her sob uncontrollably.

"Please don't hurt me please. Don't hurt me." She sobbed, but the man made his way around to her back, and sat just behind her knees so she could barely wriggle.

"I SAID SHUT UP." The man shouted, and pulled up her t-shirt revealing her back to him.

She felt a sharp pain on her left shoulder blade making her scream out and fidgit. He took his free hand to grab her arm and hold her still so he could complete what he was doing.

Soon, her screaming calmed into something more of a whimper, as she had tired herself out. She was tired of screaming, and tired of pain. She wanted to fall asleep and feel no more pain. She hoped it would be over soon, instead of the never ending torture.

She was getting increasingly tired when she felt him get off her legs and untie the binds. He rolled her over and she felt seering pain in her back as he did so. He untied her hands and then removed the gag, and held her by her hair. He yanked her up to a standing position, and put his face right infront of hers so that they were only and inch away.

"You tell anyone, the police, family, anyone, and you will pay. You got it?!" He spat, and she felt it on her face. She couldn't speak. She could only nod through her tears.

He pulled her over to the door and pulled it open, and threw her out onto the cold gravel. She hit her chin on the floor, and scrambled to her feet despite her legs being weak.

"Now get out of here." He said quietly so neighbors wouldn't go looking. "I said Get out!"

And she ran. She ran as far as she could before she felt like she couldn't go any further. She let her knees collapse when she was out of sight of the road, got her mobile out of her pocket and glad it it was still there. She phoned for an ambulance.

"Please help me." She cried. "Please help me." She put her hand tentatively on her back and cried out when she pulled her hand back and saw blood. "I'm bleeding. Please. Help me!" She was becoming hysterical. "I don't know where I am." She listened to the operator as she cried. "No. No police."

She dropped her phone as she felt darkness overcome her. She slid sideways down the wall and cried, until she was no longer aware of her surroundings.


	2. Chapter 2

Jeff and Dixie arrived on scene and found the young woman barely conscious in the alleyway. Dixie slowly made her way up to the woman.

"Hello i'm Dixie can you hear me?" Dixie sounded muffled to the woman, so she nodded and kept her eyes shut. Dixie proceeded to look over her. "Anywhere the pain is in particular?"

"My back." She gasped. "My back!"

"Okay Jeff, get a spinal board." Dixie instructed.

"No." The woman said and winced. "It's not like that." Jeff came over.

"What do you mean?" He asked, crouching down next to Dixie. He was confused.

"He, he cut me." She managed to say.

"Who cut you?" Dixie asked, and the woman had to think of what to say.

"I don't know his name. He told me not to call the police or tell anyone." She said, beginning to cry again.

"Can we have a quick look?" Jeff asked and the woman sat forwards, nodding.

"Please be careful..." She asked. "Please."

"Okay we will." Dixie said reassuringly and gently pulled the womans top up. It was sticky with blood and Dixie paled at what she saw. Jeff was also speechless.

"What?" The woman asked, trying not to become hysterical once again. "What's wrong?!" Dixie pulled herself together.

"It's nothing you have to worry about just now." Dixie said, getting some of the dressings in her bag and gently pressing them onto her back. "Lets get you into the ambulance and we will get you checked over. Do you think you can stand?"

"I think so." She replied as Dixie helped to lift her up slowly. She was very unsteady on her feet, and Jeff had to grab her by the other side. The woman winced and Jeff noticed she had some bruising on her arm.

They drove the woman to the hospital where Dixie had managed to calm her down. Zoe and Sam were waiting for them, and they wheeled her in to resus.

"This is Tina McBride." Dixie told them. "Has deep lacerations covering her back which we have managed to stop the bleeding."

Jeff continued to explain her SATS and then Zoe and Sam were left to it.

"Can we see your back?" Sam asked and Tina sat forwards, letting Sam to pull up the bloody mess of a t-shirt. Sam breathed in as she saw the wounds and looked at Zoe. Zoe looked at tried to hold her breath so that she wouldn't seem disgusted infront of the patient.

"What happened?" Zoe asked Tina.

"I'm not allowed to say." She whispered.

"Tina it is obvious that you have been attacked in some way. If you tell us, we can help to find the person that did this to you." Sam spoke.

"I can't tell you. He will come back." She whispered.

"No he won't. We have security here, and we will make sure that doesn't happen." Zoe explained. "We can't help to catch this man if you don't tell us anything."

"He said no police." She said.

"We have to call the police when a case like this happens." Zoe explained as Sam started to clean up Tina's back.

"Please no. He will come back." Tina said and tried to control her crying.

"We have to. Its not going to make it any worse if you tell us. However it will get worse if you don't."

"It will?"

"Yes." Zoe explained. "So what happened?"

"This man, I don't know his name, he brought me a drink last night, and we ended up going back to his. He started acting all weird, and then he tied up my arms as I slept and he tied my legs. I woke up in his living room bound and gagged, where he sat on my legs and cut my back." She said and tried to control her crying again. "Can I see my back? I don't know what he did to it."

Zoe looked at Sam and Sam shook her head.

"I don't think thats a good idea..." Zoe said softly.

"It's bad isn't it?" Tina said and looked at Zoe who looked at Sam. "Please just let me see it."

Zoe thought about it for a second, and saw the pleading look in Tina's eye.

"You really want to?" She nodded. "Okay. Just try not to worry when you see them. We will talk about your options after."

"Okay." Tina said, worried about what she was going to see. Zoe held a mirror infront of her while Sam held one behind. They angled the mirrors until Tina could see what was on her back.

Tina paled as she saw what was on her back and she stayed silent. Sam and Zoe put down the mirrors.

"Are you okay?" Zoe asked, and Tina shook her head.

"I'm going to be sick." Tina said and Sam grabbed a kidney dish.

After Tina was finished, Sam was getting ready to stitch the wounds. Zoe was informed by Noel that the police would like to talk with Tina.

"Tina do you want me to talk to the police for you?" Zoe offered and Tina nodded. Zoe walked out to talk to the police while Sam dressed the wounds on Tina's back.

That night Tina couldn't sleep. She had woken up once already due to relieving the days events in a nightmare. She woke up to one of the doctors putting an oxygen mask on her and asking her to try and calm down.

From then on, she couldn't sleep at all that night, and was still awake when Zoe came in to check on her the next morning.

"Oh you're awake..." Zoe said, and sat in the chair next to her bed.

"I couldn't sleep." Tina sighed.

"Pain?" Zoe asked but Tina shook her head.

"No. I slept for maybe an hour but woke up to a nurse putting me on oxygen. Bad dream." She explained.

"Oh." Zoe said, wishing she didn't have to say what she came in to say.

"What's wrong?" Tina asked, looking at Zoe's facial expression.

"Nothing." Zoe said standing up. "Try and get some rest okay?"

"Dr Hanna, somethings wrong." Tina stated. "Please tell me." Zoe sighed.

"There has been another attack."


	3. Chapter 3

"WHAT?!" Tina said. "Who?"

"I can't say." Zoe shook her head. "Patient confidentiality."

"Can I at least talk to them?" Tina asked. "I know how it feels..."

"Maybe once we have finished treating her." Zoe said. "Oh, and by the way, would it be okay if we took a photo of your back? The police would like it for evidence if this case goes to court."

"Oh. Sure." Tina said.

"Right, i'll go and get it sorted." Zoe smiled. "Need any pain relief, just press that button on the side of the machine."

"Okay." Tina said, gently easing herself into a lying position.

Later that day, Sam walked into Zoe's office holding the two photographs. Zoe looked up.

"Sam?" Zoe asked, seeing her puzzled expression.

"Yeah, um, you know those two photo's the police requested?"

"Yes..." Zoe said.

"The markings on their backs are almost identical." Sam said, still staring at the photos.

"Let me see." Zoe stood up and went to join Sam. "You're right. They are identical."

"Whats the bet that there will be another attack tonight?" Sam said, peeling her eyes from the photo's. "Oh my God."

"What?" Zoe asked, looking at Sam's face.

"Look. Dot dot dot dash dash dash dash..." Sam said. "This is morse code!"

"It is?" Zoe asked.

"I'm pretty positive." Sam said.

"Okay. Will you try and get it translated? I'll let the two of them know." Zoe said, taking off her glasses.

"Yes i'll get it done asap!" Sam said and left, once again staring at the photos.

Zoe went into Tina's room and Tina sat up.

"I think its time you came and met Kayla." Zoe said, and Tina's eyes widened.

"Kayla?" Tina asked. "Oh God. Its not Kayla James is it?!"

"You know her?" Zoe asked, and Tina started to panic.

"Thats my best friend! We go to the same club... She probably met him there!" Tina said, slowly getting off the bed. Zoe got her a wheel chair and helped her sit in it, and then wheeled a tearful Tina into the room that Kayla was in.

"Oh my God Tina what happened to you?!" Kayla asked, in tears.

"Exactly the same that happened to you, but the other night." Tina said as Zoe wheeled her next to Kayla's bed.

"No." She said. "Not you too! Did he..." She pointed towards her back and Tina nodded. Both of them wiped their eyes.

"I will leave you alone in a second." Zoe said. "But I need to talk to you both first. As you are aware, you have both had markings put into you backs."

"I saw them." Tina said to Kayla.

"So did I." Kayla said, and Tina held out her hand for her.

"Well, we looked at both of the photos." Zoe said. "The markings are exactly the same on the both of you."

"Exactly the same?" Tina asked.

"Exactly." Zoe said. "And we looked over them both, and it looks like it could be morse code."

"You think they 'engraved' a message into our backs?" Kayla asked. "Is that what you are saying?"

"I'm afraid so." Zoe sighed. "We have Sam checking it out now for us."

"Okay." Tina sighed and gripped Kayla's hand.

"Be warned... Another attack could possibly happen tonight since there have now been two in a row..." Zoe said.

"We know." Kayla nodded tearfully. "We will help them, won't we Tina?"

"Yes." Tina nodded. "We will."

"That's great to hear." Zoe smiled. "I'll let you talk for a little while."

Zoe left the room and went to find Sam. She was sitting at a computer at the main desk.

"Found anything?" Zoe asked, and saw that Sam was using a morse code translator.

"Nearly..." Sam said, finishing typing. She clicked translate and there the words were.

Im coming.

"Whats that supposed to mean?" Sam asked. "Im coming?"

"He was either having a very pleasurable time..." Zoe said recieving a look from Sam. "...or it means he is coming."

"Coming here?" Sam asked.

"Well he might have known they would come here, and maybe he wanted us to work out the puzzle..." Zoe explained.

"So you think he planned this?" Sam asked.

"I think so." Zoe said. "I'll get security on the-"

She was interrupted by Dixie.

"Zoe we have another one..." Dixie said and Zoe and Sam came over.

"Another attack?!" Zoe asked. "It's mid afternoon!"

"We know." Dixie sighed. "Well this is Taylor James, found with lacerations on her back and bruised arms and ankles."

"Okay thank you Dixie." Zoe said and took her into resus.

They sorted out her back and Sam looked closer.

"This is still morse code." She whispered to Zoe. "But it's different. The end is. And its not as long."

"But the wounds are deeper." sighed Zoe as she spoke to Taylor about what bappened.

"Where is Kayla?!" She asked. "I texted her and she said she was already here."

"Kayla James?" Zoe asked.

"Yes.. My sister." Taylor said as Sam took a photo of the girls back.

"You can see her soon." Zoe said.

"What happened to her?" Taylor asked.

"The same thats happened to you." Zoe explained softly as she tended to the girls back. Sam had gone to translate the code.

"She went through this too?!" Taylor asked, panicking. "Oh God... And why did you take a photo of my back?"

"These attacks are linked." Zoe explained. "The lacerations on your back are a code. Morse code."

"I have morse code on my back." She said as it all sank in. "I'm going to have a code scarred on my back."

"We can offer reconstructive surgery to make the scars less visible..." Zoe said.

"But you will still be able to see it right?" Taylor asked, crying.

"I'm afraid so." Zoe said. "Do you know who did this to you?"

"No." she said. "I never saw his face."

"Oh." Zoe explained. But then Sam crashed through the double doors.

"Zoe. We need to put the hospital on lockdown." She said.

"Why?" Zoe said, panic rising within her.

"Look at the code." Sam said, handing her it on a piece of paper.

The code read- I'm here.


	4. Chapter 4

Zoe looked at the photo infront of her and the code that Sam had translated.

"He's here?" She asked, trying to think of what to do. "How long has she been here?"

"A few hours." Sam said.

"So he could already be here..."Zoe sighed. "Okay, call for security and call the police, and make sure that the victims are protected."

"Got it." Sam said.

"And I will warn everyone else." Zoe said, frightened but determined not to show it.

She got to the desk in the E.D and called for people to gather round.

"Guys, I know, you are busy but this is urgent." Zoe said, her hands shaking. People were giving her concerned looks.

"Is everything okay?" Tess asked, but Zoe carried on talking.

"There is a good chance that there is an armed man in the hospital at this very moment in time." She said.

"How do you know?" Fletch asked, recieving a few nods.

"We know, because over the past two days, we have had three attacks, each a woman with lacerations to their backs. These wounds weren't random. We looked at the pictures, and it seemed that they were messages written in morse code."

"What did the messages say?" Linda asked.

"The first two were identical, saying 'I'm coming.'" Zoe explained. "The other, that only came into the E.D an hour ago, had a different message, which said 'I'm here.'"

Zoe looked around, seeing a mixture of scared, anxious and concerned faces.

"We have decided to put the hospital on lockdown, accepting no new patients or letting anyone else in until the place has been thoroughly searched." Zoe explained. "Please try not to worry. Could you all tell your patients that if they see someone suspicious, please can they press the emergency button which will call us to their aid."

"How will we be safe though?" Aoife, one of the student nurses asked.

"There will be security positioned around the place, and you have pagers." Zoe explained.

"We don't." Jamie, another student nurse replied.

"Then stick close to your mentors who do have one." Zoe said. "Any more questions?"

No one else put their hand up or spoke out.

"Okay, so please warn your patients, gently please, and try to get back to work the best you can."

Zoe went back to find Sam, and found her chatting to a man with a sketchbook in hand.

"Sam?" Zoe asked, wanting to know whats going on.

"Zoe, this is Jim from Holby City Police Station, and he has come to get a descriprion of what the man looms like so he can draw it." Sam told her. (sorry dont know what they are called haha).

"Okay." Zoe said. "Talk to Tina and Kayla. Taylor told me that she didn't see the mans face."

"Okay." Sam turned to the policeman. "If you will follow me..."

"I'll be walking around and making sure people are okay." Zoe said, and left to go back to the E.D reception area.

Sam lead the policeman to the room where all three girls were situated.

"Excuse me." Sam said. "This is Detective Smith who has come to get a description of the man who did this."

"We didn't get a very good look at him..." Tina said and Kayla nodded.

"I understand that but any little detail right now would be a big help." Detective Smith told them.

Tina and Kayla worked together the best they could and Detective Smith drew what was being described to him. He had soon finished and showed them the finish product.

"Yes!" Kayla said. "That looks like him!"

"It does." Tina nodded. "That looks exactly like what I saw."

"Great." He replied, seeing the security get positioned outside the room. "Thank you for your time. You have been a big help."

With that he left the room and found Zoe sitting at the main desk deep in thought.

"Dr..." Detective Smith began.

"Dr Hanna." She said and looked at him.

"The sketch is complete. Kayla and Tina agree that it is close to the appearance of the man who attacked them. Is there a photo copier around?"

"Sure there is one just down that hall." Zoe said. "Can I see the sketch?"

"Yes." He turned the picture around and showed her. She studied it for a few seconds.

"Okay." Zoe said. "I'll remember his face. Hand a few copies out to doctors and nurses and they can ask patients for any sightings."

Detective Smith went to photocopy the drawing and Zoe went to find Sam.

"Security found anything?" Zoe asked.

"Not yet." Sam said. "Just remember that ge might not be here at all."

"I know. The detective is going around and letting everyone know what the man looks like so we will soon get him if he is here."

"I don't think he is though Zoe." Sam shrugged. "Maybe we are over reacting."

"I don't." Zoe shook her head. "Why would someone cut the words 'i'm coming' into someone elses flesh and not turn up?"

"Don't ask me, but there are some nutters out and about nowadays." Sam said.

"But still be careful." Zoe said.

"I will." Sam replied and went to keep talking to patients.

Zoe knew this was dangerous, walking around the E.D when an armed man was on the loose somewhere, but then she thought about what Sam said. Maybe it was a trick...

She decided she would get herself a well deserved coffee from the staffroom, but as she walked over to the counter, the door slammed and she heard it lock. She slowly turned around to reveal the attacker.

"Hello Dr Hanna. We meet again."


	5. Chapter 5

"Oh my God." Zoe said as she looked at the man. She knew him. She had once treated him and his son. It was only a couple of weeks before. "Greg." She looked at him. "You look well. How are you?"

Greg and his son had been in a car accident. The passenger side had been hit by a lorry when Greg had not paid attention to the road. A breath test had shown he had been drinking.

At this point, Zoe was trying to make conversation, but then it hit her.

The drawing of the man that attacked the three woman. It was a drawing of him. The drawing hadn't been dead on, but the longer Zoe looked, the more she saw the resemblance.

"How am I?" He smiled. "Oh i'm absolutley fine!" He smirked and Zoe began to feel slightly scared. "Did you work it out?"

"The morse code was you wasn't it?" She whispered and backed away so she was leaning on the worktop. Greg took a few steps closer to her.

"I will take that as a yes." Greg smiled sickly, and Zoe shivered.

"What do you want?" She asked him, and he looked her in the eye.

"Pay back." He grinned and walked towards her.

...

Back in the E.D, no one else had a clue what was going on behind closed doors.

"Noel, have you seen Zoe?" Sam asked, and he shook his head.

"I'm afraid not." He said. "But the last time I saw her, she was going that way." He pointed in the opposite direction to the staff room.

"Thanks." Sam said. "If you see her, tell her i'm looking for her."

"Will do." He smiled and cautiously looked around before sitting down and getting back to work.

Sam walked through most of the hospital but Zoe remained nowhere to be seen. Sam was starting to worry now. It wasn't like Zoe to disappear. She started to turn around when a familiar face came into view.

"Mr Jordan." Sam said. "What are you doing back here?"

"Hello Dr Nicholls." He smiled. "I came to pick something up from my office."

"Oh right." She said. "I hope you aren't busy..."

"Why do you ask?" He said, and she looked at him.

"An armed man is believed to have been walking around the hospital. He sent us messages enscribed in womens backs. Long story." She sighed. "Well the latest message said 'I'm here' so we put the hospital in lockdown."

"So thats why they didn't want to let me in." He sighed and rubbed his head.

"Most likely." Sam said. "Oh, you haven't happened to come across Zoe on your travels have you?"

"No sorry." He said.

"Because she is supposed to be in charge and i've been looking all over for her." Sam explained.

"Oh thats not like Zoe." Nick shook his head. "I'll help you look."

"Okay thanks. I'll go look on the wards again and you check E.D. Okay?" Sam said.

"Sure." Nick replied, but before they could go anywhere, someone had tapped their emergency button.

They both ran and entered the room.

"I'm sorry I should have done this earlier." A woman said. She looked to me in her mid sixties. "I saw a man... He looked a bit like the man in the policemans picture..."

"How long ago did you see him?" Nick asked.

"About ten minutes..." She said.

"Which way did he go?" Sam asked and she pointed.

"That way?" Nick looked. "That's towards the E.D..."

"Right lets go." Sam said. "Thank you for telling us!"

The two of them left and rushed towards the E.D.

"Sam, i've got a bad feeling about this." Nick said.

"So do I Nick." She sighed. "So do I."

Back in the staffroom, Zoe could not move any furthur backwards and Greg was slowly closing the gap between them.

"Pay back?" Zoe asked. "For what?"

"For killing my son!" He shouted, and slapped Zoe round the face. She put a hand to her cheek.

"We did not kill your son!" Zoe spat. "You did! If you hadn't been drink driving then you would still have your son with you!"

"LIAR!" The man raged and shoved Zoe sideways so she fell to the floor. "You couldn't save him. You killed my boy."

"We did everything we could." Zoe said to him. "He was brain dead!"

"Shut up!" Zoe recieved a kick to her stomach and she clutched it as it had winded her.

"Me?" She managed to say as she gasped for air. "You...were driving... You did...this."

"I did nothing. You killed my son!" He shouted, getting a shiny object from his back pocket.

A knife.

Nick and Sam ran through the E.D and looked in every single cubicle and store room.

"Where is she?" Nick asked, starting to panic.

"Oh God." Sam said, thinking.

"What?" Nick asked.

"We never checked the staffroom." She whispered, and they both started to run back.

Will it be too late?


	6. Chapter 6

"Please put the knife down..." Zoe said, struggling to pick her up off the floor. "We can help you."

"You can't help me!" Greg spat. "You'll only kill me of you try!"

"For the last time!" Zoe shouted. "We did not kill your son!"

"I know you did!" He shouted. "He was in your care!" He lunged forward and held Zoe against the wall with the knife to her neck. She whimpered.

"Please don't do anything you will regret." Zoe said. "You will get put in prison."

"I don't give a shit!" Greg said, pressing the knife into her neck but not hard enough to break the skin.

"Please." Zoe said, shaking. "Stop."

"This is the least you deserve." He said, and cut Zoes neck, she screamed and put her hand to her neck as Greg let go. She pulled her hand away and saw that she was bleeding quite a lot, but thankfully he hadn't cut too deep. She slid down into a crouching position as the pain brought tears to her eyes.

"Please let me out." Zoe whispered.

"Oh i'm not done with you yet." He sniggered, and pulled her feet so he dragged her across the floor. She tried to claw at the floor to stop herself from moving.

Greg put his foot on her side and kicked her, so that she was lying on her front. He then sat on the back of her legs as he took both of her arms and tied them together. She couldn't move. She wriggled with all her strength but she couldn't get free from his grip.

"LET ME GO!" she screamed and cried, but he started to put something over her mouth which muffled the sound. She continued to scream but now it was too quiet. No one would hear her.

She clenched her eyes shut as Greg lifted up her top, knowing what was coming. The cold knife touched her back, and she felt nothing but pain.

Outside, Sam and Nick picked up the pace to read the staffroom. They reached it and tried the handle, but it wasn't locked.

"Its locked from the inside." Nick said. "Zoe? Are you in there?"

He heard no reply from anyone. There had to be someone in there as the door wouldn't be locked otherwise.

"Zoe?!" Nick raised his voice. "Its Nick!"

Still nothing.

"Shh." Sam said to Nick and put her ear to the door. She could hear a faint noise, high pitched, but she couldn't make anything out. She got the stethoscope from around her neck, and listened through it while she put the end against the door.

"Nick, listen." She said, horrified at what she had heard. "Zoe's in there."

He listened and his face paled.

"Right, i'm knocking this door down." He said and stepped back.

"Don't you think that we should get security to-"

She didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as Nick had already launched himself at the door. The door flew open and revealed Greg getting off Zoe who was crying hysterically on the floor tied up and gagged.

Nick ran up to Greg and through him on the floor.

"What the HELL did you think you were doing?!" He shouted at him. "Security!"

Security had ran in and they were taking him away.

"Nick..." Sam said, and Nick turned to her and Zoe.

Only then had he properly looked at Zoe. She looked exhausted. The back of her shirt was covered in blood and her neck didn't look great either. He rushed over as she started to hyperventilate.

"Can we get a trolley in here?" Sam shouted from the door, and within seconds a trolley was being wheeled in by two of the students. "Jamie, get Tess and Linda. Tell them its Zoe." Jamie nodded and ran out of the room. Nick and Aoife helped to lift Zoe onto the trolley while Sam made sure that resus was ready.

Zoe was wheeled into resus and Nick was holding her hand. He put her on oxygen as her breathing wasn't getting any better.

"Zoe please try and calm down. We will sort you out." Nick said softly as Tess and Linda rushed in.

"My back!" Zoe shouted out and pulled off the mask. "My back!"

"I know Zoe we will sort it out!" Nick said. "Tess she needs morphine."

"I'm already on it." She said, and prepared the pain relief.

Zoe was visibly getting exhausted by the minute, and Nick got Sam to sort out her back before letting her rest.

Later on, Zoe was sleeping peacefully as Nick held her hand. Sam came in to see how they were doing, with more information on Zoe's injuries.

"Mr Jordan." Sam said, and pulled up a chair next to him.

"Dr Nicholls." He replied, still holding Zoe's hand. Sam smiled at them both for a minute.

"You know, she still gets stressed out about not doing her job as well as you did it." Sam said. "Thats all I hear. She wants to do you proud."

"And she has done." He said. "She did everything perfectly."

"I keep telling her that." Sam smiled. "Well, I have the translation from the more recent code."

"On Zoe's back?" Nick said, shuddering, knowing that Zoe would have to live with scarring on her back.

"Yes..." Sam said. "I think its best if we give her some surgery to reduce the scarring..."

"Why?" Nick asked. "What did it say?"

Sam sighed.

"It said 'Guilty of murder.'"


	7. Chapter 7

Nick shook his head, horrified and angered at what the man had enscribed into Zoe's flesh. Zoe had never murdered anyone, and she never will. Well, she hadn't told him that she had.

Nick continued to think and he felt Zoe shift about on the bed uncomfortably. She opened her eyes and groaned.

"How are you feeling?" He asked her, seeing as she was still extremely groggy.

"In pain." She muttered back. "Ouch."

"Zo." Nick said, making her look at him.

"What?" She asked.

"You didn't..." He started. "Kill, anyone did you?"

"What?" she started to laugh but saw that he wasn't laughing with her. In fact, he was quite serious. "You are really asking me that?"

"I have to." Nick said.

"I would never kill anyone Nick." Zoe said, appalled that he had even seriously asked her. "Why? Did you think I did?"

"No." he shook his head. "Its just something he...said."

"He didn't say anything to you." Zoe shook her head as tears formed in her eyes. "It's what he wrote on my back isn't it?"

"Now Zoe don't cry..." Nick said, trying to calm her down.

"What did he write Nick?" She asked.

"Guilty of murder." Nick said, and she cringed as a tear fell down her cheek.

"I'm not guilty of murder." Zoe said through clenched teeth. "He called me a murderer because I couldn't bring his son back to life."

"You knew him?" Nick asked.

"I treated his son." Zoe said. "He was drink driving, and crashed the car

his son was brain dead."

"Did you tell him?" He asked.

"Of course I told him!" Zoe said. "Why would I want him to cut me open? I tried telling him but he wasn't having any of it."

"Alright, I only asked!" He held up his hands as if to surrender.

"What are you doing here anyway?" She asked. "I thought it was your day off." she wiped her eyes on the back of her hand.

"I came to get something from my locker but this happened." He explained.

"I mean't," She started. "Why are you still here?"

"I wanted to make she that you were okay." Nick said, and she looked into his eyes.

"You didn't have to stay." She said quietly.

"I wanted to." He replied and took hold of her hand again.

"Why?" she asked, as he ran his thumb over the back of her hand.

"Because what you went through was horrendous." He told her.

"I don't think i'll ever forget it." Zoe shook her head and wiped her eyes again.

"How's the pain now?" Nick asked, his voice full of sympathy.

"It's not too bad." She smiled a little. "Only when I move."

"Oh." He replied and looked at her neck. "You were lucky with that cut."

"I know..." Zoe said. "It felt deep."

"A few more millimeters and then that would have been it Zoe." He said. "I would have never have seen you again."

She looked down and slightly scared.

"I was really worried that I wouldn't get to see you again when we found that you were trapped in that room with that man." He continued to explain. "I thought I had lost you."

"Well i'm still here." She smiled slightly and put her other hand on top of his. "and I always will be."

"It killed me seeng you tied up like that..." Nick said, shutting his eyes as the memory appeared.

"Nick..." Zoe said. "Don't worry now. I'm fine."

"And i'm glad." He smiled and kissed her softly. "I love you."

"I love you too." Zoe smiled, and they kissed for a second time.

(THE END)


End file.
